UTSA presents Swingle Singers a cappella group Feb. 7

(Jan. 19, 2005)--The UTSA Department of Music Monday Night Artist Series
presents The Swingle Singers, an ensemble of
eight a cappella singers from England, at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 7 in the Arts Building Recital Hall on the
1604 Campus. Tickets are $20.

"Swingle-singing" is described as the use of the voice as an instrument in a fusion of jazz and classical
styles. The group opens its United States tour at UTSA with their vocal gymnastics and trademark sung
arrangements of previously instrumental classics, jazz standards, opera, and TV and film soundtracks.

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Various performers have performed under the Swingle Singers name over 40 years of touring. The group has given more than 3,000 concerts in Europe, North America and the Far East, and produced more than 40 albums and hundreds of a cappella arrangements. One of the group's albums made
it to the top 10 in the United States in 1963 and remained there for nearly a year and a half. It and two
subsequent albums received Grammies for best performance by a chorus.

Ward Swingle, the founder of the group, grew up in Mobile, Ala., with the sounds of jazz. He took his
musical background with him to France in the 1960s, where he founded the group, Double Six of
Paris, applying the scat singing of singers such as Louis Armstrong to the works of Bach.

When the Paris group disbanded in l973, Swingle moved to London and formed an English group, expanding the
repertoire to include classical and avant garde works along with the scat and jazz vocal arrangements.

Swingle remains as adviser for the London-based group, but now lives in France where devotes his time to
workshops, arranging, composing, guest conducting and disseminating his printed arrangements through his
publishing company, Swingle Music.

The Monday Night Artist Series concludes for the semester April 18 with a piano performance by faculty
member Elizabeth Gutierrez.